1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for designating and deleting expired files. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for identifying expired files during a list file operation and deleting identified files accordingly.
2. Description of the Related Art
A common system management challenge is reducing the number of old, unused files that are maintained by the file system. As old, unused files accumulate on the file system the system administrator often attempts to remember to erase the files when they are no longer needed. Many files are time sensitive in nature.
For example, documents on a stock analysis web site may include articles regarding stocks that are currently being recommended as stocks to “buy” or “sell.” Because of the nature of the stock market and stock recommendations, the stock recommendations provided today are of little or no value months or years from the recommendation date. Other documents, such as those pertaining to special promotions or offers with limited time availability, are also time sensitive and should be purged periodically from the system.
Currently, system administrators may remind themselves using electronic or paper notes to delete certain files when the usefulness of such files has expired. System administrators may also make calendar entries in an electronic or paper calendar prompting the administrator to delete certain files at a future data. A challenge with these methods is that the system administrator's notes are not maintained with the files that will be deleted. If the system administrator's notes are lost, it will be difficult to remember what files need to be deleted at a given date.
An additional challenge is presented when a system is used by multiple users. The users that create files may not inform the system administrator of the time sensitive nature of certain files. In addition, some users may not inform the system administrator that certain files should be deleted. In these systems, each of the users needs to set reminders regarding expired files or inform the system administrator that certain files should be deleted at some point in the future. These methods lead to inefficiencies for the users and system administrator. Moreover, with multiple users it is more likely that the users or system administrator will forget to delete the files once the expiration date has passed.
Another challenge with the current state of the art is that system administrators delete files manually when reminded by their calendar or notes. For example, if a directory of stock recommendations should be deleted in six months, the system administrator sets a reminder for themselves (i.e., in a calendar or note) and, when six months have elapsed, manually deletes the directory containing the stock recommendations. These manual activities are inefficient uses of the system administrators' time. Busy system administrators may in fact forgo cleaning up expired files because of the time needed to perform such activities.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method in which the file expiration data is designated and maintained along with system data used to manage the file. In addition, what is needed is a way to delete the file once the file's expiration data has passed. Moreover, what is needed is a way to delete such expired files by using minimal system resources.